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PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



Jj 



(if isliiliit fli tlie 




IN 



COMMEMORATION OF ITS REMOVAL 



FROM THE 



Old to the New Capitol, 



FEBRUARY 12, 1879. 



^ 





RS. 









PROCEEDINGS 



l^egisldurc of ih %Mt of \m ijark 



COMMEMORATION OF ITS REMOVAL 



FROM THE 



Old to the JSTew Capitol. 



. V 



February 12, 1879. 




ALBANY: 

WEED, PARSONS AND COMPANY, PRINTERS. 

1879. 









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4f PEOOEEDIl^GS 



;fgii5ktttvf d Hit ^Uk a( ^tw ^ml 



Commemoration of its Removal 



FROM THE 



Old to the New Capitol. 



state of NeU) 13ork: 



On motion of Mr. Harkis : 



IN SENATE, 

January 23, 1879. 



Resolved (if the Assembly concur), That a joint committee of three be 
appointed from eacli House to act in conjunction with the New Ca])itol 
commissioners, and arrange for a formal ceremony to commemorate the 
departure of the Legislature from the Old to the New Capitol. 

The President appointed as such committee on the part of 
the Senate, Senators Harris, Robertson and Goodwin. 



IN ASSEMBLY, 

January 23, 1879. 

Resolved, That the Assembly do concur in the resolution adojited by the 
Senate, relative to a formal ceremony to commemorate the departure of 
the Legislature from the Old to the New Capitol. 



4: Proceedings of the Legislature. 

The Speaker appointed as the committee on the part of the 
Assembly, Messrs. Sloan, Hijsted and Brooks. 

On the 28th day of January the joint committee, to which the 
subject was referred, presented to the Legislature the following 
report, which was unanimously agreed to : 

To the Legislature : 

Your committee appointed by joint resolution of the two Houses, on the 
3d day of January, 1879, to consider the question of commemorating 
the removal of the Legislature from the Old to the New Capitol, beg leave 
respectfully to report as follows : 

We recommend that such removal be commemorated by the following 
observances : 

The Senate and Assembly will meet in joint convention in the Assembly 
chamber, on the 12th day of February next, at 1\ o'clock, p. m. 

The Governor and his military staff, the Chief Judge of the Court of 
Appeals and the associate judges thereof, and the State officers, will be 
invited to be present. 

The order of procedure for the joint convention will be as follows : 

Prayer. 

Introductory address by the Lieutenant-Governor. 

Address by the Speaker. 

Historical address by Erastus Brooks, member of Assembly. 

Benediction. 

We further recommend that a joint committee be appointed to carry out 
the foregoing arrangement of procedure. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. 

HAMILTON HARRIS, 
W. H. ROBERTSON, 
ALEXANDER T. GOODWIN, 

Senate Committee, 

GEORGE B. SLOAN, 

J. W. HUSTED, 

ERASTUS BROOKS, 

Assemlly Committee. 
January 28, 1879. 



Proceedings of the Legislature, fi 

The committee appointed by the joint resolution of the two 
Houses to consider the question of commemorating the depart- 
ure of the Legislature from the Old to the New Capitol, was 
continued to carry out the observances recommended in the 
above report. 

IN SENATE, 

February 12, 1879. 

Seven o'clock and flfteen minutes, P. M. 

On motion of Mr. Hughes : 

Resolved^ That a committee of two be appointed to wkit upon the Hon- 
orable the Assembly and inform that body that the Senate is prepared 
to meet in joint assembly to commemorate the departure of the Legislature 
from the Old to the New Capitol, pursuant to concurrent resolution pro- 
viding for the same. 

The Peesident announced as such committee, Messrs. Hughes 
and Edick. 

Messrs. Husted and Holahan, a committee on the part of 
the Assembly, appeared in the Senate, and announced that the 
Assembly was prepared to meet the Senate in joint assembly, 
pursuant to concurrent resolution of both Houses. 

Messrs. Hughes and Edick, the committee appointed to wait 
upon the Assembly, reported that they had discharged that duty. 



IN ASSEMBLY, 

February 12, 1879. 

Seven o'clock and flfteen minutes, p. m. 

On motion of Mr. Husted : 

Resolved, That a committee of two be appointed to wait upon the Hon- 
orable the Senate and inform that body that the Assembly is ready to 



6 Proceedings of tJie Legislatia-e. 

meet them in joint assembly, pursuant to coucurreut resolution previously 
adopted by the two Houses. 

The Speaker appointed as such committee Messrs. Husted 
and HoLAHAN. 

Messrs. Hughes and Edick, a committee appointed on the part 
of the Senate, appeared in the Assembly chamber and stated 
that they had been appointed on tlie part of the Senate to inform 
the Assembly that the Senate was ready to meet the Assembly 
in joint convention. 

Messrs. HusTED and Holahajt, the committee appointed to 
wait upon the Senate, reported that they had discharged that 
dnty. 

The Senate then proceeded to the Assembly chamber, pre- 
ceded by the Lieutenajs't-Governoe as President of the Senate. 

The Lieutenant-Governor then took the chair, by the side of 
the Speaker of the Assembly, and called the joint assembly to 
order. 

Right Rev. William Croswell Doane, D. D., offered the 
following prayer : 

Almighty God, who hast revealed Thyself unto us in Thy Holy Word as 
"our Judge, our Lawyer and our King," by whom alone " kings reign and 
princes decree justice; " who "teachest Senators wisdom "; we pray Thee 
to look with Thy favor upon this house, which has been builded for fram- 
ing, interpreting and administering law, whose "seat is the bosom of 
God, and her voice the harmony of the world." 

Except the Lord build the house, their labor is but lost that build it. 
Protect Thou this house from uurighteousness, and these chambers from 
wrong. 

Thou art set in the throne that judgest aright; give to Thy servants that 
sit on the seat of justice wisdom to minister true judgment unto Thy 
people. 

Thou only magnifiest the Law and makest it honorable ; grant that Thy 
servants who assemble here may receive the law from Thy mouth, and lay 
up Thy words in their hearts. 



Proceedings of the Legislature. 7 

To Thee only it appertaineth to punish and to pardon ; make the magis- 
trates to bear not the sword in vain, and yet in wrath to remember mercy. 

Direct and prosper all the consultations of the two Houses of the Legis- 
lature for the enactment of just and equal laws, the preservation of liberty, 
the punishment of evil-doers, and the praise of them that do well. 

Bless Thy servants the Governor and the Lieutenant-G-overnor of this 
Commonwealth; the officers of State and the judges. Enrich them with 
Thy heavenly grace ; dispose and turn their hearts as it seemeth best to Thy 
godly wisdom, that, knowing whose ministers they are, they may above all 
things seek Thy honor and glory; and that we, duly considering whose 
authority they have, may faithfully serve, honor and humbly obey them. 

Make us mindful of Thy mercies in the past, and faithful to the memo- 
ries and traditions of truth and justice, of religion and patriotism, in 
those who have gone before us. 

The Lord our God be with us as He was with our fathers. Let Him not 
leave us nor forsake us, that He may incline our hearts unto Him, to walk 
in all His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His 
judgments which he commanded our fathers. 

Direct us, Lord, in all our doings with Thy most gracious favor, and 
further us with Thy continual help, that in all our works begun, continued 
and ended in Thee, we may glorify Thy holy name, and finally by Thy 
mercy obtain everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord, who hath 
taught us to pray unto Thee, O Almighty Father, in His prevailing name 
and words : 

Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name ; Thy kingdom 
come ; Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven ; give us this day our 
daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass 
against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; for 
Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever and ever. 
Amen. 

The President presented the following communication, which 
was read by the Clekk of the Senate : 



State of Nero ^ork: 

EXECUTIVE CHAMBEK, 

Albany, February 12, 1879. 

Hon. William Dorsheimer, Lieutenant-Governor : 

Dear Sir — I find, with extreme regret, that I shall be deprived of the 
privilege of listening to the addresses of yourself, Speaker Alvord and 
Mr. Brooks, this evening, as I hoped to do. Every moment of my time 



8 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

is occupied with official duties of unusual urgency. I see, moreover, by 
the morning papers, that the ceremonies are expected to occupy three or 
four hours, and I am advised by my oculist that tliere would be a great 
danger of entirely arresting the improvement going on with my eyes if I 
should expose them to the gas-lights in the Assembly chamber even for 
one-fourth of that time, and he protests against it most earnestly. 

I am, with great respect, yours, very truly, 

L. KOBINSON. 

Senator Robertson moved that a committee of two, one from 
eacli House, be appointed to wait upon the Judges of the Court 
of Appeals and the State officers, and inform them that the two 
Houses of the Legislature were met in joint convention, and 
prepared to receive them. 



The President put the question whether the joint assembly 
ould ag] 
affimative. 



would agree to said motion, and it was determined in the 



The President announced as such committee on the part of 
the Senate, Mr. Kobertson. 

The Speaker announced as such committee on the part of the 
Assembly, Mr. Penfield. 

The committee then proceeded to the Executive chamber, and 
escorted the Judges of the Court of Appeals and State officers 
to the Assembly chamber, where they were received by the joint 
assembly, standing. 

Mr. Speaker Alvord then introduced Lieutenant-Governor 
DoRSHEiMER, wlio addrcsscd the Assembly as follows : 



speech of Wilitam Dorsheimer, 9 

Senatoks and Gentlemen of the Assembly : 

You have met in joint convention to commemorate the 
departure of the Legislature from the Old Capitol to the 
New one. As I understand your purpose, it is to recall 
the past, rather than to dwell upon the present, or to 
anticipate the future. 

I have sometimes thought that reverence for places 
which are associated with the lives and achievements of 
the great is peculiar to modern times. But, without 
insisting upon so sweeping a statement, it may safely be 
said that the general education of the people, which is 
the chief glory of our century, was needed to awaken 
this feeling through great masses of men, and so make 
it powerful. In our day it has become a mighty force. 
A new bond between men, and a cheap defense to nations. 
A treaty of peace which is negotiated by the memories 
and affections of mankind. It obliterates differences 
of race and language. It attaches to the cottage as 
well as to the palace ; to the low roof which sheltered 
Shakespeare's cradle, and to the ruins of the stately villa 
where Cicero sought retirement from strifes too rude for 
his temper ; to the grotto in which Bruce cherished his 
great design, and to the elm tree in whose shade Wash- 
ington first drew a rebellious sword ; to the window 
out of which King Charles stepped to meet the heads- 
man, and to the wall on which Cromwell's head was 
shown ; to the hall where the last Irish parliament 
resisted the persuasion of Grattan's oratory, and to the 
quaint building in Philadelphia where the declaration 



10 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

was signed ; to the lofty Florentine fane wliicli covers 
the tombs of Galileo and Michael Angelo, and to the hal- 
lowed pavement beneath which Spencer and Ben John- 
son, Dryden and Chatham, Dickens and Macaulay, Pitt 
and Fox are buried. But how little is left to gratify a 
feeling so general and so tender ? It is not long since 
Rome held the Mediterranean in her embrace, and to- 
day archseologists dispute as to where the building was 
in which the Roman Senate sat and Caesar died. With 
ostentatious fountains and triumphant monuments, 
Paris has hidden the site of the guillotine. The tide of 
business has swept Temple Bar out of London. Han- 
cock's house has disappeared fi'om Boston, and historic 
names from the streets of Albany. A few pictures, a 
few statutes, a few writings, here and there a building, 
and most of them in ruin, are all that the mighty past 
has left us, all that man has done to justify hiS proud 
hope that he is immortal. 

It is a great misfortune that the building, which for 
seventy years has been the Capitol, must be taken away. 
That is the chief infelicity connected with the enterprise 
of building a New Capitol. Seventy years ago our 
country was resisting foreign encroachments by the 
Chinese device of an embargo. What a contrast that 
to the multitudinous powers upon land and sea Avith 
which to-day the Republic would confront a foe ! Sev- 
enty years ago a few villages languished in the valley of 
the Hudson, and occasional settlements were scattered 
through the valleys of the Mohawk and Delaware. The 
rest of our territory was still the home of savage life 



speech of William Dorsheiiner. 11 

and the abode of savage men. Wliat a contrast that 
with, the populous and busy eommonwealth of to-day ! 

During these seventy years New York has risen from 
the fourth to the first place among American States. 
This was not by accident, nor caused by a fortunate geo- 
graphical position alone. It was, I think, worked out 
by mse statesmanship. New York owes her greatness 
to three lines of public policy sagaciously planned and 
persistently pursued ; one material, one intellectual and 
one moral. I shall speak of these not in the order of 
historic succession, but in the order in which I have 
named them. 

The policy which established the material prosperity 
of this State, was that by which channels of transpor- 
tation between the east and the west were constructed, 
and have since been maintained and administered, not 
as sources of public revenue, but as instruments for the 
control of commerce. This gave us both the domestic 
and foreign trade, and to it we owe our wealth. It was 
to be expected, that a people who were the descendants 
of the merchants of England and Holland, would suc- 
ceed in the strife for commercial supremacy in this 
country. 

The second great policy was that by which the State 
provided for the education of the people. This we o^ve 
to Holland. John of Nassau wrote to his brother 
William the Silent, these memorable words : 

* ' You must urge upon the States-General, that they 
should establish free schools, where children of quality, 
as well as of poor families, for a very small sum, could 



12 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

be well and Cliristianly educated and brought up. This 
would be the greatest and most useful work you could 
ever accomplish for God and Christianity, and for the 
Netherlands themselves. Soldiers and patriots, thus 
educated, with a true knowledge of God and a Christian 
conscience ; also churches and school-houses and printing 
presses, are better than all armies, armories, alliances and 
treaties that can be had or imagined in the world." 
These are noble sentences to have written amidst the 
tumult of Spanish war. A precious legacy to us from 
one of the fathers of our State. 

All the patents issued by the States- General convey- 
ing lands in this colony, required that a school should be 
maintained upon every grant, and so at the first schools 
were established. 

On the 21st of January, 1784, soon after the conclu- 
sion of peace with England, Governor George Clinton 
addressed the Legislature as follows : 

'■ ' Neglect of the education of youth is among the 
evils consequent on war. Perhaps there is scarce any 
thing more worthy your attention than the revival and 
encouragement of seminaries of learning ; and nothing 
by which we can more satisfactorily express our grati- 
tude to the Supreme Being for His past favors ; since 
piety and virtue are generally the offspring of an enlight- 
ened understanding.' ' 

Accordingly at that session a bill was passed, dated 
May 1, 1784, which established the University. 

In 1787 the first step toward the creation of a system 
of free schools was taken by the Regents of the Univer- 



speech of William Dorsheimer. 13 

sity. A committee, of which John Jay and Alexander 
Hamilton were members, and of which James Duane, 
Mayor of New York, was the chairman, in their report 
used the following language : 

' ' But before your committee conclude, they feel them- 
selves bound, in faithfulness, to add, that the erecting of 
public schools for teaching reading, writing and arith- 
metic, is an object of very great importance, which ought 
not to be left to the discretion of private men, but be 
promoted by public authority.' ' 

In 1795 the first "act for the encouragement of 
schools ' ' was passed. By it twenty thousand pounds 
were annually appropriated for the term of five years, 
for the purpose of " encouraging and maintaining schools 
in the several cities and towns in this State, in which 
the children of the inhabitants, residing in the State, 
shall be instructed in the English language or be taught 
English grammar, arithmetic, mathematics and such 
other branches of knowledge as are most useful and 
necessary to complete a good English education.' ' 

Following this, after many unsuccessful attempts, in 
1805 an act was passed to raise a fund for the encour- 
agement of common schools. 

The whole system was thus established : First, com- 
mon schools to be supported by taxation. Second, 
academies to be encouraged by liberal annual grants. 
Third, the University to supervise and control the 
colleges, and seminaries of higher education. The 
head was made first, and it is to be observed that the 
University was so framed, that under its guardianship 



14 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

all the denominations, Presbyterian, Baptist, Episco- 
palian, and Roman Catliolic, miglit establish schools and 
colleges for the teaching of their tenets, bnt the Uni- 
versity was of no sect, and knew no religious differences 
or distinctions. 

This system of education has made ours an intelli- 
gent and liberal community. It has enabled us to 
easily take to ourselves and assimilate those who came 
to us from foreign lands. It gave us skill to use the 
advantages of our j)osition and work out our marvellous 
prosperity. It gave to our legislation such excellence that 
our Constitutions have been the models upon which many 
States have been formed, and that our laws have been 
copied by the legislatures of every American, and of many 
foreign countries. The geological survey of New York 
has given a nomenclature to the science of geology, and 
our codification of the law has instructed the juris- 
prudence of every people to whom the common law is 
administered. Not only has New York influenced 
other States and nations ; it has become the very 
type and representative of American civilization. A 
poet describes Kent as the " very England of England," 
and so we may say that here is the America of America. 

The third muniment of our greatness has been the 
toleration of all races, creeds, opinions and churches. 
Religious hatred never governed here. There was never 
here any religious test to office or citizenship ; nor was 
any man ever punished by this government on the 
score of his faith. We are so used to this blessing that 
we do not know its worth. But, when one recalls the 



speech of Williarn Dorsheimer. 15 

fierce strifes of sect which filled Europe at a time when 
this colony welcomed every sect — when one recalls the 
gloomy superstitions amid which New England passed • 
her childhood — when one recalls the great effort it cost 
England in our own day to relieve Ireland from a 
church to which the people were aliens, we may appre- 
ciate at its real value this the consummate flower of 
Christian charity and statesmanship. 

These three policies Avorking in harmony have made 
New York great. Commerce has made her people rich ; 
teaching has made them wise ; and charity has taught 
them that to preserve their own freedom, they must 
secure liberty to others. 

It does not need the vision of a prophet to see that 
these policies will be continued. You are the heirs of 
the past. It is your part to keep and add to your great 
heritage. There can be no cause for fear. AVhatever may 
be necessary to retain our commercial supremacy will be 
done. Our intellectual advancement will not be stayed. 
Schools of art have already been established, and the 
collection of libraries and museums has been beo-un. 
Special aptitudes can now be developed, and the artisan, 
however poor, may now learn the most subtle secrets of 
his craft. If Providence should ever give us one of 
those His- most precious gifts — should ever raise up 
among us one of those men who only come rarely and 
after long intervals — one who might be to us what Aris- 
totle was to Greece, Cicero to Rome, Michael Angelo to 
Italy, Cervantes to Spain, Goethe, to Germany, and 
Victor Hugo to France — a man strong enough, even 



16 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

though all other record were lost, to save and transmit 
the name and fame of a nation — should such an one be 
sent, we may believe that, as hitherto, the wonderful 
child will be found not on the couch of the rich, but 
upon the pallet of the poor. Shall it then happen that 
that immortal light shall be put out by the cold winds of 
penury, and that the fair flower of genius shall fade and 
wither amidst darkness and neglect ? No, he will be 
sure to find that a generous country has prepared for 
him, even though he be the humblest of her children, 
an easy road to learning, and " a broad approach to 
fame." 

I need not say, that there is no danger that we will 
ever introduce here that spirit of intolerance, which has 
stained every page of European history. 

Senators and gentlemen, the people of New York have 
been too busy with the present and future to think of 
the past, too much employed in making and carrying 
out enterprises of government and business, to find 
leisure for the contemplation of what they or their ances- 
tors have done. It needs an event like the present one 
to persuade us to turn and read the glowing record. 
He must be cold, indeed, who can cast his eyes upon the 
past without honorable pride, and without sorrow that it 
is necessary to take away the building in which these 
triumphs were won. We find one complete justification 
for the construction of a Capitol of such durability, that 
we may expect it to last as long as there shall be any 
one to take an interest in it ; and that is that those who 
shall come after us may never need to make the sacrifice 



speech of Thomas G. Alvord. 17 

of priceless associations wliicli we are compelled to 
make. The traditions which shall gather here — the 
lives which here shall be given to generous and patriotic 
purposes — the eloquence which here shall teach noble 
lessons — the strifes through which each forward step 
shall here be taken — the measures which shall be 
framed here to soften the hard conditions and level the 
cruel inequalities of fortune — all these will j)resently 
cover this aspiring vault with an Arabesque of sweet 
memories more delicate than any the hand has ever 
chiseled, and will spread upon it colors more beauti- 
ful than any pencil can describe. 

When our future shall be the past, it must be, that 
those who shall live then will rejoice that the Capitol 
has been built so strong, that its associations and its tra- 
ditions will endure to the latest generation. 

At the conchision of his address, Lieutenant-Governor Dor- 
SHEiMER resumed the chair, and introduced Mr. Speaker Thomas 
G. Alvord, who addressed the Assembly as follows : 

Senators and GEisTTLEMEisr of the Assembly : 

Owing to my official j)osition, conferred upon me by 
the kindness of my fellow-members, I have been selected 
by the committee of arrangements as one of the speak- 
ers on this memorial occasion, and they have sand- 
wiched me between the gentleman who has just ad- 
dressed you, and the gentleman who will make the clos- 
ing speech. This is the cause of somewhat of embar- 
rassment ; for I follow the eminent lawyer, the wise 
3 



18 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

statesman, tlie good executive officer — a gentleman 
from whose lips always drops tlie lioney of eloquence ; 
and I am to be followed by a gentleman who stands pre- 
eminent among his fellows as one of the most accom- 
plished journalists of the day — a gentleman, in profound 
scholarship^ not inferior to any in our country. But 
inasmuch as a simjDle duty has been imposed upon me 
this evening, I shall endeavor to discharge it with 
the least possible attempt at a speech beyond the bare 
statistical recital. 

The committee have assigned to me the duty of re- 
viewing the personnel of those who, in various capacities, 
have occupied the old capitol ; and in the performance 
of this task, I have found my way made easy by the 
able and eloquent discourse which you have just list- 
ened to. The eloquent speaker has given the results of 
the action of the people through its legislative and exe- 
cutive bodies. I j)ropose briefly to review the men who, 
in their various official capacities, have successfully and 
well performed their work. 

The Old Capitol — whose requiem we sing to-night, 
mingled with the joy that this New Capitol, rising phoe- 
nix-like from its downfall, is to be, in the eloquent lan- 
guage of the gentleman who preceded me, "perpetuated 
until legislatures and legislators will no longer be neces- 
sary " — that Old Capitol has had centered in it, and from 
its hall has come, all the wise legislation that has made 
our State a great and prosperous commonwealth. 

Permit me somewhat to trespass on the province of 
the gentleman who is to succeed me, and to claim the 



speech of Thomas G. Alvord, 19 

privilege to relate a matter of history. The Old Capitol 
was erected and first occupied at a period in our history 
when almost the whole of its occupants were men who had 
passed through the throes of the Revolution — men who 
had stood pre-eminent in camp and in field ; in the forum 
on all occasions defending and supporting the rights of 
our fathers in the great struggle for American Independ- 
ence. Those were the men who first met in the Old 
Capitol, the end of which we are to-night commemorating. 
And, fellow-legislators, it may be profitable to pass in 
review their acts, and the men who have been in the po- 
sitions we occupy to-day. 

We have, as the first Grovernor inaugurated in the Old 
Capitol, Daniel D. Tompkins, a name historical — grandly 
historical — not alone for his conceded executive ability, 
but also that in the war for our second independence, at 
a time when the North — not then the South — threat- 
ened secession ; in those days standing up boldly and 
manfully for the people's rights, he girded on with the 
sword of State the sword of battle, and led his column 
of our State troops, who, under his command, success- 
fully and triumphantly fought in support of our great 
Union in its glorious st:^uggle for sailor's rights and 
commercial freedom. 

Next comes De Witt Clinton, whose name and fame 
were known of all men long before he occupied the 
chair of State in the Old Capitol. Among many great 
acts performed, one stands out prominent in his history. 
It has been well and truthfully said, to-night, that the 
opening up of our highways of commerce was one of 



20 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

the great acts of the j)ast that has won for us the title we 
hold, proudly and rightfully — the Empire State of the 
Union. Clinton has the reputation, and he has the right 
to claim it, of opening up that great water highway of 
commerce connecting the river of our State — the North, 
or Hudson's river — with the great lakes of the west. 
But Just here, while I willingly accord to Clinton all 
that history and his surviving friends claim for him, I 
take personal — no, not personal, but local pride, in 
claiming for my county and people that Joshua Forman, 
one of its members of the Assembly in 1808 — the year 
before the occupation of the Old Capitol — introduced, 
advocated and procured the passage of a measure ap- 
propriating the sum of $600 — a large sum in the days 
of our fathers — for the purpose of a survey and exam- 
ination as to the feasibility of constructing and operat- 
ing a canal from the western lakes to the tide-waters of 
the ocean, within the limits of our State ; and following 
up that action, another of Onondaga's sons — the Hon. 
James Geddes — as one of the first engineers and sur- 
veyors, employed, determined the practicability of the 
measure, which was afterward tested by the people under 
the guidance of Clinton in the completion of that great 
and world renowned water-highway — the Erie canal. 

Next comes Martin Van Buren. Is it necessary for 
me to recite any thing in regard to this man ? No 
matter what might have been party feeling and 
party animosity in his day, all must acknowledge that 
he was one of the great, one of the powerful, one of the 
strong men of our State and nation. 



speech of Thomas G. A Ivor d. ' 21 

Marcy's name is a household word with all of us. 

Seward — is it necessary at this time, when so shortly 
in the past he has gone to his final rest, for me to say 
aught to his memory — interwoven as his life was, from 
its beginning to the end, with all that was beneficial and 
advantageous to the people — standing square on the 
ground that education should be given broad and wide- 
cast to the whole people — believing in and practicing 
the doctrine of equal rights in all matters of religious 
belief — and in the dark days of the republic, nobly sup- 
porting the bulwarks of the Constitution — •claiming 
that the sinew, blood and treasure of the country, in put- 
ting down the great rebellion, should be freely expended 
for our salvation as a nation — his is a name ever to be 
remembered with pride, gratitude, and reverence, by the 
people of his native State. 

Bouck — associated as he was, from an early day, with 
our great works of internal improvement — a man who 
was not hampered by Canal Boards and Canal Auditors, 
but, trusted by his people, and putting into his saddle- 
bags the money necessary to pay for work performed, 
mounting his old white horse, riding from one end to the 
other of the canals, not only to pay the w^orkmen, but 
also to see that their work was w^ell and honestly done ; 
and as a good and faithful servant, renderiug a just and 
true account for every cent expended — that man should 
be long and w^ell remembered by the people of his State. 

Silas "Wright, John Young — I would consume more 
than the time allotted me, if I should dilate upon the his- 
tory of these two gentlemen ; they are a part and parcel 



22 Proceeditigs of the Legislature, 

of the State's history, and in the hurried manner that 
want of time demands, I must leave the memory of their 
acts and virtues to your own recollection. 

As Lieutenant-Governors, prior to 1846, again we have 
De Witt Clinton, and, among many worthies, a Koot, a 
Bradish, a Dickinson, and a Gardner. 

Of Governors, since 1846, we have Hamilton Fish, a 
name synonymous with honor and integrity, justly hon- 
ored in the near past with still higher distinction in the 
annals of his country. A Hunt, a Seymour, who from 
the small beginning of member of Assembly, as you and 
I are now, my fellow-members, has risen, step by step, to 
the proud position he occupies to-day, and whose every 
feeling pulsates, and whose whole soul is filled with anx- 
iety for the further enlargement of the great proportions 
of the Empire State, in all that makes it glorious and 
powerful. 

Then follow, acting each his part worthily and well, a 
King, a Morgan, the war Governor, a Hoffman, a Dix. 

Under the new regime, we record as Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernors, Hamilton Fish, Sanford E. Church, George W. 
Patterson, Henry J. Raymond, Henry R. Selden, David 
R. Floyd-Jones. 

We have many others who have aided to do the great 
work, of which our presiding officer has fitly spoken, but 
time will not permit any but a mere selection of prom- 
inent and historical names. 

Flagg, Dix, John C. Spencer, Samuel Young, prior to 
1846, were Comptrollers. Marcy, Silas Wright, Flagg 
and Collier, were of the number of Secretaries of State. 



speech of Thomas G. Alvord. 23 

Van Vechten, Martin Van Buren, Talcott, Bronson, 
Beardsley, Hall, Barker, John Van Buren, Attorney- 
Generals. 

Simeon De Witt was for half a century Surveyor- 
General. 

Let us for a moment return to the old names, many 
contemporaneous with the earlier days, and who helped 
to build up the great commercial interests of our State, 
and we find as Canal Commissioners, De Witt Clinton, 
Samuel Young, Henry Seymour, William C. Bouck, Jonas 
Earl and Michael Hoffman. 

The Constitutions of 1821 and 1846, the first partially, 
and the last radically, changed the manner of the appoint- 
ment and choice of many State and local ofiicers ; both 
of the conventions framing these constitutions held their 
sittings in the Old Capitol. Prior to the Constitution of 
1821, the Governor presided over and had a casting vote 
in the Council of Appointment, and this council made 
almost all of the ofiicials, both military and civil, as well 
for the counties as the State, and this, finally, reached over 
15,000 in number. Up to that period, voters were re- 
quired to possess a certain amount of property, and the 
same rule was applicable to certain officers. In 1821 the 
Constitution abolished the property qualification and the 
Council of Appointment, and gave to the Governor, by 
and with the advice and consent of the Senate, nomina- 
tions and appointments to office ; among others, all judic- 
ial officers were thus made, except justices of the peace, 
whom the people were permitted to elect. The Consti- 
tution of 1846 broadened the elective rights of the pec- 



34 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

pie, and largely restricted the gubernatorial power of ap- 
pointment; all these changes, these mile-stones in the 
progress toward pure republican government, were made 
in the Old Capitol. 

Among Secretaries of State, since 1846, we find the 
names of Morgan of Cayuga, Leavenworth of Onondaga, 
Headly, Jones, Depew and Nelson. 

As Comptrollers, Fillmore, Hunt, Church — his name 
we find frequently, and deservedly so, as an officer in the 
State government — Denniston, Robinson, Allen, J. M. 
Cook. 

As Attorney-Generals, Jordan, Ogden Hoffman, Tre- 
main, Dickinson, Martindale, Pratt. 

As Canal Commissioners, Cook, Ruggles, Bruce, 
Hayt. 

We come now to the legislative branch of our govern- 
ment, where, as said to-night by the Lieutenant-Governor, 
all the laws which laid the foundation for the greatness 
of our commonwealth were introduced, perfected and 
passed. 

In the Senate prior to 1846, among other distinguished 
names, we notice De Witt Clinton, Livingston and 
Taylor ; since that time, Lott, Jones, Sanford, Denniston, 
Clark, Young, Joshua A. Spencer, Hand, Porter, Hard, 
and a host of others, their worthy compeers. 

I trust that I give offense to none by the failure to 
mention other names, for time and your patience forbid 
a further recital. 

In the olden times of the Old Capitol we find as mem- 
bers of Assembly, among many others equally worthy, a 



speech of Thovias G. Alvord. ' 25 

Van Eensselaer, a Van Vechten, a Cady, a Micliael Hoff- 
man, and a Loomis; and since 1846, our brancli of tlie 
Legislature has held largely of the best and ablest men 
of the State. 

In reference to the judiciary, permit me to say that 
among the many who have shown themselves nobly su- 
perior in the administration of Justice, I find the names 
of Kent, Sanf ord, Jones, Walworth, both as chancellors 
and judges ; and as judges of the Supreme Court and 
Court of Appeals, Thomj^sou, S^^encer, Savage, Nelson, 
Bronson, Beardsley, Piatt, Marcy, Jewett, Johnson, Denio, 
Comstock, both the Seldens, Porter, Hunt, Foster, 
Mason, and many others. 

Gentlemen, I have thus briefly recited to you the 
names of a few of the many distinguished men to whom 
this State owes a debt of gratitude it can never pay ; 
men who really worked for and established solidly, I 
trust permanently, not only the present but the future 
prosperity and greatness of the Empire State. 

We are here to-night for the purpose of celebrating 
the inauguration of this great building, and we are here, 
Senators and gentlemen of the Assembly, Judges and 
officers of State, to see to it that, under the circum- 
stances which surround us, by the names and deeds of 
the great men of whom we have heard this evening, we 
shall use our utmost endeavor to take no backward step, 
but, to the fullest of our ability, what these men did for 
our State we will affirm and preserve ; we will so inau- 
gurate this New Capitol that no shame shall attach to 
our names ; we will make this arena a platform upon 



26 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

■whicli shall be built still further prosperity and increas- 
ina: honor to our beloved State. 

A¥e are placed in a different position from those who 
preceded us. In the days of the past Senators and Assem- 
blymen, selected from large districts and a sparse pop- 
ulation, were chosen with great care ; their popularity 
and reputation were not localized, but were State- wide ; 
they came here with no anxiety for special legislation, 
but for the enactment of broad and general laws, taking 
in the interests of the whole people ; they had no petty 
jealousies, no private interests, no desire each to build up 
his own locality at the expense of the rights of any other ; 
but they aimed to pass wise and good laws for the bene- 
fit of all. 

The adoption of the Constitution of 1846 led to almost 
a democratic government, in the broadest sense of the 
word — I speak in no offensive sense ; I mean an abso- 
lute democracy — making a town meeting of the Legis- 
lature. The Leg^islature was overburdened and over- 
whelmed with the consideration of local and private 
interests. Such bills were always to be passed in pref- 
erence to legislation of great and general importance. 

The Constitution adopted by the Convention of 1867-8 
laid down the principle that we should return to the 
ways of our fathers ; that, as far as possible, all private 
and local legislation should cease, and that, in the main, 
general laws, applicable to the whole State, should be 
enacted. The people repudiated that Constitution ; but 
it is with pride and pleasure that I claim the right to- 



speech of Erastus Brooks. 37 

night to say — as I see here many who were with me in 
that convention — piece by piece the people, realizing the 
justice and great value of our propositions, have, in the 
main, since adopted nearly all of them. AVe are now to 
have general laws ; we are, as far as possible, inhibited 
from the passage of local or private bills ; now we may 
fondly hope that in the future our State will progress 
to a still higher position of Empire among her kindred 
States of our Union. 

The President then introduced Hon. Ekastus Bkooks, who 
addressed the Assembly as follows : 

Gentleme]^" of the Senate, of the Assembly, 

AND Fellow Citizens : 

The opening of the State Capitol in the 102d year of 
the legislative history of the Commonwealth, so soon fol- 
lowing the session, "W'hich a year ago commenced the 
second century of our connected legislative record, 
demands some special notice at our hands. The age of 
the Old Capitol was Just three-score and ten years, and 
some there are now living who remember the laying of 
the corner-stone, and who may survive its final removal. 
The probable age of the New need not enter into calcu- 
lation ; but our prayer is that the future may prove in 
all that is patriotic, wise and j^rosperous, at least equal 
to the past. The New Capitol, like the Old, though not 
founded upon a rock, is set upon a hill, and built of 
granite; it is for all time. The Old has a histoiy of 
events with hardly a parallel in the history of the 



28 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

Republic, and the city of Albany, at one time called the 
colonial capital, eclipses all localities as the place where 
the union of the colonies was first inspired, if not con- 
summated. Albany was the seat of the real union in 
the Congress of 1754, as New York city was the colonial 
centre in the Congress of 1765. It was just here that, 
Franklin and his compeers, and Franklin especially, 
sowed the seeds of liberty which gradually ripened, in 
1775, in the Declaration of Independence ; but away back 
of this, in 1691, under "William and Mary, ihe New York 
Colonial Assembly asserted, in manly spirit and noble 
words, the rights and privileges which belonged to the 
subjects of the Crown in the Province of New York, and 
from that year on there was an annual Assembly. These 
early meetings were held in New York city, and from 
1777-8, some of them in Kingston and Poughkeepsie. 
In the years of the past, the States have grown from 
thirteen colonies to thirty-eight commonwealths. Our 
fathers found here, whatever their beginning, the best 
blood of the Indian race, of whose real origin we know 
so little, and the fathers came before the landing of the 
pilgrims at Pl3^mouth, or of the Virginia colonists at 
Jamestown. 

These Indians are known as the " Five Nations," and 
to name them is to 2:)rove their courage in battle, their 
eloquence in council, their wisdom in govei'nment, and 
this not less when they acted together in cases of emer- 
gency, than when they acted as independent tribes. 
These tribes — the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onon- 
dagas, the Cayugas and the Senecas — were the Five 



speech of Erastus Brooks. 29 

Nations of the English and the Iroquois of the French. 
They formed a confederacy which was recognized from 
Nova Scotia to the Mississippi, and here, where we meet 
to-night, then called by the Iroquois " the ancient place 
of treaties," and then, as now, the oldest chartered town 
and city in the United States,'^ they were oftener the 
friends of the feeble white and red men than their ene- 
mies ; and, with all their faults, I venture to say, that 
but for theii* friendship with the Dutch, New York, 
in their day, would have been almost an unknown 
land, and the independence of the people a long post- 
poned event. 

If the love of religious liberty was the secret of the 
change desired by the Pilgrims of old England, we must 
remember that Holland was both the place of their 
debarkation and the land where they first found a wel- 
come. The intended destination of the Mayflower, as 
she lifted her anchor at Delft-haven, South Hampton 
and old Plymouth, was the bay of New York, but an 
overruling Providence directed the ship to the coast of 
Massachusetts. First Cape Cod was sighted and then 
Plymouth. So, also, the Virginia Colony — destined for 
North Carolina — was by a tempest driven into Chesa- 
peake bay. 

Always, in great events — 

" Tliere is a divinity tliat shapes our ends, 
Rough hew them how we will." 

Our present interest, however, is in New York, whose 

Note. — In 1686 Albany was incorporated as a city. Peter Schuyler and 
Robert Livingston were sent to New York to receive its charter, which, on 
their return, was proclaimed " with all ye joy and acclamation imaginable." 

* 



30 Proceedings of the Legislatui-e. 

colonization, like that of New England and Virginia, 
forms an epoch in the history of the world. We justly 
praise the Pilgrims, who left their homes and crossed the 
sea for freedom to worship God. The Dutch came, if 
need be, to repeat the story of the Netherlands, and that 
story means all of independence that belongs to the 
republic of that name. It begins, indeed, in the terrible 
reign of Philip II, aiming to crush out every trace of 
civil and religious liberty in old Holland. It recalls the 
honored names of Egmont and Horn, of Barneveldt 
and Grotius, of Erasmus and Maurice, and in art the 
marvellous skill and taste of Rembrandt and Rubens. 
Eleven years and two months before the embarkation of 
the Pilgrims, the Half-Moon, Henry Hudson, commander, 
entered Sandy Hook, just where the Mayflower was 
directed to sail. Hudson's employers, once London 
merchants, but now the East India Company, sent him 
in search of some nearer route to Asia than by the Cape 
of Good Hope, and his purpose Avas to reach China via 
some-to-be-discovered north-west passage. He believed 
he could pass through the waters dividing Spitzbergen 
from Nova Zembla. Icebergs, then as since, presented 
eternal barriers through which no ship could pass. From 
Newfoundland via Cape Cod on to the mouth of the 
James river, thence to Delaware bay, thence again to the 
high hills of the Navesink, stopping as he came by the 
coast of Maine to cut a fore-mast from the forest, was the 
work of but a few days, and the Half -Moon, a yacht of 
eighty tons, which started for China, picked up at James 
river on the 18th of August, and passed the Highlands 



speech of Erastus Brooks. 31 

of New Jersey on the 3d of September. The river which 
bears Hudson's name he took to be an arm of the sea, lead- 
ing, it might be, to the Pacific and on to the eastern shores 
of Asia ; but the nearer discovery of land, whose uplands 
divided waters flowing both into the St. Lawrence and 
the Mississipj^i, the great water shed of the cold north 
and the warm south ; the great passage way also in time 
from the lakes to the Hudson, and from the Hudson to 
the sea, was a discovery of vastly more importance to 
our own commerce, and to the trade and prosperity of 
the world, than all the wealth and honors which could 
have come from the fulfillment of his earliest and best 
expectations. 

This is not the time nor place to compare w^hat followed 
from the New York, the Jamestown and the Plymouth 
landings, nor the relative advantages and adventures of 
Captain John Smith, Sir Walter Ealeigh and Henry 
Hudson. The bay of New York, and "the great river," 
as the Hudson was then called, charmed the eyes of the 
few beholders as they looked out for the first time, from 
their little vessel, as they have delighted the vision of 
many millions since. The great navigator, who had 
already traversed nearly all the known seas, and 
approached nearer the pole than any one born before 
him, as his vessel lay at anchor off the shore where is 
now the present town of Yonkers, wrote home, that " it 
was as fair a land as can be trodden by the foot of man." 
But the greater beauty of the Hudson, then as now, was 
beyond the Highlands. Just what its charms are we all 
know. The Danube has more of history, and the Rhine 



32 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

castles an older record, and our own great American 
rivers more commerce, and more vast proportions of 
length, breadth and of great connecting waters inland to 
the wonderful west, but where in all our land or in any 
land, as a whole, is there a river of more real grandeur, 
or of such varied beauty as the Hudson ? * 

Contrast, too, the warm Indian welcome to the Half- 
Moon and Hudson by the river Indians, as they were 
called, 269 years ago, mth the almost daily Indian strife, 
and bloodshed of the past fifty years. The little vessel 
seemed to come from the Great Spirit, and mth its sails 
spread to the breeze to wing its way as from some celes- 
tial sphere. 

Say what we may of those we call North American 
savages (and the subject is important in the light of pres- 
ent discussion), there remains the fact, not to be blotted 
out, that Hudson, a stranger to their shores, and in pur- 
suit of gain and fame for a foreign j)ower, was welcomed 
by the natives, with rare exceptions, all along the river 
which bears his name, from the Island of Manhattan to 
the Katskills, and beyond to the capital of the State. He 
found here a simple and happy race of beings, living 
upon maize, beans and fish, smoking their copper pipes 
with earthen bowls — a fact proving that there lived 
upon this continent a race of semi-civilized people, which 
makes the year 1609 comparatively a period of modern 
time. Indeed, Verrazani, nearly a hundred years before, 

* Hudson called the river wliicli bears his name " The Great River of the 
Mountains," the Dutch, " The Great North River of the New Netherlands," 
and the natives the Mohegan, the ManMttes, while the Mohicaus knew the 
river by the name of the Coholiatatea. 



speech of Erastus Brooks. 33 

had rounded tlie headlands of the Navesink and anchored 
in the same bay of New York, and lay there until the 
storm drove him seaward, to visit, as he did, 900 leagues 
of coast, or from Cape Fear to Newfoundland. The river 
Indians were found eager for traffic, and, at least, were as 
fair at a bargain as those who came from the old world 
to the new in pursuit of rewards and honors and wealth. 
Near the now great city of the new world, but nearer 
the Jersey shore than our own — though belonging to 
the waters of New York by its earliest charter — the 
Indians presented themselves in the autumn time, clad in 
gay feathers and heavy furs won from the games and 
sports of their own forests. The autumn foliage in its 
grandeur of crimson and gold, green and purple, in itself 
a mass of beauty, made a picture which needed but the 
blue above and the blue below to be pronounced perfect, 
and with the active life of the Indians bartering on the 
water in their light canoes, the scene was almost one of 
enchantment. Wherever the Half-Moon moved on the 
Hudson she received a hospitable welcome. Reaching 
the shores of the Katskills, where is now Hudson city, 
this welcome became an ovation. The chief, whose years 
and honors gave him precedence, invited the master of 
the seas to his wigwam, and there all the hospitalities of 
the now despised race — most despised where most 
wronged — was bestowed upon Hudson and his compan- 
ions. In return, just then, they received none of that 
fire-water which, at the hands of heartless Indian traders 
and other men of greed, have since killed so many natives 
of the forest, and so many pale-faces of both town and 



34 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

countiy, but ratlier a hospitality seen in tlie abundance 
of tlie last year's harvest, piled up in higli stacks and pyra- 
mids within a vast circular building constructed of oak 
bark. The beans and maize found here were enough to 
fill three ships, and while the elders received their visit- 
ors with the ease and grace which belonged to their chief 
and race, the young men were in the forest Avith their 
bows and arrows providing game for their guests. The 
feast, when prepared, made a repast which even kings 
might desire and their subjects crave. The corn, or suc- 
cotash, was served to their guests seated on mats, and 
nature's fingers, no doubt, w^ere in ^^art a substitute for 
our present steel carvers and silver knives and forks. 
But the tokens of good-will did not end here, and as the 
captain re-embarked for his ship, these (so-called) sav- 
ages broke their arrows into pieces as a pledge of perpet- 
ual peace. 

" Of all the lands I have seen," the navigator wrote 
home, " this is the best for tillage ; " and he would have 
added, if need be : " Of all the strange people I have met, 
these natives of the forest are, at least, as capable as the 
best of mankind for reciprocal hospitality and friendship." 
So, at least, the apostle Eliot found them in Massachu- 
setts, Roger Williams in Rhode Island, John Smith in 
Virginia, and William Penn in Pennsylvania. 

It is worthy of remembrance, also, that twelve years 
after Hudson's visit to the Hudson river, a treaty of 
peace was made with the Indians which continued for 
more than fifty years, and which would have endured for 
a century or more, but for the interference of those 



speech of Erastus Brooks. 35 

vicious intermeddlers and numerous busy-bodies who are 
usually more successful in marring friendships than in 
maintaining peace and good- will among men. This was 
true of the Five nations of New York ; and the Hol- 
landers commenced an alliance which bid fair to continue 
for generations, but for the tyranny of the one bad man 
Kief t, who first disturbed the common harmony, and then 
destroyed all hopes of peace. No Indian treaty or agree- 
ment was ever broken while the Dutch held power in the 
territory. 

Alas ! for the sad ending of the life of poor Hudson. 
His own people, only a year after his sail up and down 
the Hudson, were his murderers. On the coast of Green- 
land four of his own crew, all dying men, with his son, 
his companion also to the new world, were set adrift 
upon the merciless waters. While the distant north sea 
became his place of burial, his best monument is the 
beautiful river flowing by the capital of our State. All 
we know of him in the end is that, with his eyes stream- 
ing with tears, he gave his last crust of bread to men so 
maddened by hunger that they banished their commander 
and best friend from their presence, and from all probable 
hopes of safety. 

With Hudson it was as with the more reno^vned John 
and Sebastian Cabot, over one hundred years earlier, and 
with the brilliant Florentine, Yerrazani. No man knows 
the sepulchre of either of these great navigators and new- 
world discoverers. The voyages of the Northmen, who 
visited New England far back in the pre-Columbian age ; 
that of Biarne, in 986, sailing from Iceland to Greenland, 



36 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

and driven southward upon the American coast ; of Leif, 
the son of Eric the Eed, in the year 1000; of Karlsefne, 
who spent three years at Mount Hope, R. I, in 1007, 
and on, while matters of much speculation are also facts 
of history, if we are to credit the past ; but it is almost 
sad, after long research, to see how little we really know 
of the earliest men and earliest times in the discovery of 
America, and even of our own State. But, happily, there 
is much that is known and proved beyond all cavil. 

The Dutch, five years after the first great navi- 
gator had left our shores, were established at Castle 
Island, on the Hudson, just south of Albany, where for 
years they were engaged in the profitable trade of furs 
and peltries with the Indians, and in 1628, two hundred 
and fifty years ago, the Dutch Reformed Church and 
school were planted in the city of New York. 

In the meantime the Unrest, Adrian Block in com- 
mand, a little yacht of sixteen tons, passed up the East 
river, and found her w^ay by Long Island sound to Mon- 
tauk Point, and so on to Rhode Island and Nahant. 

Some of the most interesting revelations in the early 
civil history of New York may be traced to the thirty 
years' war in Germany; the Reformation inspired by 
Luther ; the fierce strifes between conservative and radi- 
cal Protestants ; the burning of Servetus, and the harsh 
doctrines and dogmas of John Calvin. The whole Dutch 
system was, indeed, then Calvinistic throughout ; but in 
the Colony of New York it was much more. Here from 
the beginning the maxim was, as it was later in the United 
Colonies: "In imion there is strength." Even before 



Speech of Erastus Brooks. 37 

the Revolution of 1688 by five years, and eight years 
before Massachusetts asserted the right of her citizens as 
free subjects of England, the New York bill of rights 
proclaimed that supreme legislative power should forever 
be and reside in the Governor, Council, and people in the 
General Assembly. Among these recited rights were 
trial by jury ; freedom from taxation, except by their own 
consent ; exemption from martial law ; the quartering of 
soldiers upon citizens, and perfect toleration to all per- 
sons professing faith in Christ. Twenty years later, or 
in 1708, the New York General Assembly resolved, first, 
that every freeman in the Colony had perfect and entire 
property in his goods and estate ; and second, that the 
imposing and levying of any moneys upon Her Majesty's 
subjects of this Colony, under any pretense or color what- 
soever, without consent in General Assembly, is a griev- 
ance and a violation of the people's property. 

If, in 1629, the States-General of Holland had been as 
wise as their English successors, they never would have 
granted, as in their Assembly XIX, and by State Com- 
missioners appointed by the States-General, that exclusive 
charter of " privileges and exemptions " under which the 
feudalism of the old world was transplanted to the new, 
and out of which grew the angry contests between the 
patroons or lords of the soil and their landed tenants, or 
between the owners and occupants of the ground, which 
for so many years created local discords and legal dis- 
putes in different parts of the State. A landed aristocracy, 
let me say, can never be in true harmony with a demo- 
cratic government and a republican people. 



38 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

Tliese great liistoric events were the very stepping- 
stones to our earliest colonial life. There were Grotius 
and Barneveldt on the one side — one the great writer 
on International Law, the wisest, boldest and bravest 
thinker of his time, and an authority with statesmen 
and freemen everywhere and ever since. Grotius was 
one whom Menage called " a monster of erudition ; " and 
so he was, but his erudition was alike read and heard in 
song and story, and in the profoundest learning of the 
schools, while Barneveldt's moral force and political 
influence, in a large sense, made him almost the founder 
of the Dutch Eepublic. In all history, we find no man 
whose character commands more respect. He knew 
Charles V and Philip II, as it were, by heart, and he 
knew them as the creators and promoters — sometimes, 
perhaps, for conscience sake — of collossal crimes, and as 
the enemies of all true liberty. They believed, and 
Philip especially, not alone in the supreme empire of the 
Church over the State, but that Charles and Philip, by 
Divine right, were the real masters of the world. Spain, 
under them, was the realm of immense power, [ind it 
required the combined forces of France, England and 
the Dutch to hold her ambition in check. Fortunately, 
the thirteen American Colonies, though largely Protest- 
ant, did not copy from the Dutch Republic the angry 
divisions among their Protestant people, for these quar- 
rels were fiercer within the State than the wars without. 
The organized European league existed on the one side, 
and the great Protestant union on the other ; but the 
latter possessed more enmities, if not more enemies, 



speech of Erastus Brooks. 39 

witliin its own ranks than existed among all opposing 
forces. It is almost incredible tliat the points of separa- 
tion related to those sharp dogmas, which from time to 
time seem to turn the world upside down. One of these 
was the doctrine of predestination, and whether, by- 
election, one child was born to salvation, and another to 
damnation. In almost ludicrous contrast, some, and even 
a large party of the English Separatists, which met at 
Amsterdam, became involved in a quarrel about the 
starched bands for men, and the right kind of apparel 
for women. Happily for the Pilgrims at Holland, all 
their residence there was during the twelve years of truce 
with Spain, after forty years of continuous war. 

In some portions of this grand edifice I am reminded 
of the Spain of a thousand years ago ; of Roman and 
Moorish splendor as at Cordova ; of decorations in the 
style of the Alhambra; of the blended Roman and 
Gothic, Moorish and Christian beauties of old Seville. 
We honor, however, only the glowing art of Andalusia, 
and not the follies of the old Andalusian age and people. 
The vaulted roof above us, sixty feet higher than the 
cornice, the massive corridors, decorated in blue and gold, 
walls tinted in olive, amber and maroon, and belted 
with gold and saffron ; the allegories above us painted 
on stone, the one illustrating the Flight of Night, followed 
by the coming day, and the other The Discovery, with 
Fortune at the helm and Hope at the prow pointing to 
the West, with Faith and Science surrounding all, are 
but the contributions of old-time genius to the demands of 
modern art. While we copy from the past for the enjoy- 



40 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

ment of our present senses, we also stop with the eye, 
remembering the fate of cities and nations whose luxury 
and pride proved their ruin. 

Nor grauite walls, nor marble halls, 

Cau make the State: 
Nor wide spread space, nor art, nor grace 

Avert its fate. 

But to return : The fault of Barneveldt — and this 
perhaps was a necessity of the times — was in asserting the 
supremacy of the jDolitical state over the minds and souls 
of men. Thankful to Ahnighty God should the people 
of the United States be for the inspiration of His word, the 
teachings of history and especially of that old-world his- 
tory, which secured for us the separation of Church and 
State, with perfect freedom of conscience to worship God. 
Never in the United States of America, as so long in 
Holland, shall religious dissensions sever the bonds 
of the Republic, and never again can the dark spot of 
slavery inherited in part from our Dutch ancestors, and 
largely from our English parents, and wholly from the 
old world, but only too eagerly adopted in the new, 
prove the cause or effect of dissension by State separation. 

I dwell upon such facts because it was amidst the 
throes of these European revolutions in the struggles 
for a freer thought that our American Colonies, and New 
York especially, were planted. There, amidst contend- 
ing factions, Catholics, Lutherans, Baptists, Armenians, 
Calvinists, and the innumerable throng of schismatics, 
the reformed religion, as was said by the author of the 
Dutch Republic, found the chasm of its own grave. 



speech of Erastus Brooks. 41 

Out of the old-world's strifes grew the new world's 
peace, embodied ninety years ago in the Federal Consti- 
tution, declaring that " Congress shall make no law re- 
specting an establishment of religion, or jDrohibiting the 
free exercise thereof." Our State Constitution is even 
more explicit. The preamble reads, " We the people of 
the State of New York, grateful to Almighty God for 
our freedom, and in order to secure its blessings, do estab- 
lish this Constitution." Then follows the declaration 
that: "The free exercise and enjoyment of religious 
profession and worship, without discrimination or pref- 
erence, shall forever be allowed in this State to all man- 
kind." If our first Constitutions were the latest (both 
Colonial and State), finally adopted, they were the best 
because they gathered wisdom from all the rest. John 
Adams, in a letter to John Jay, did not hesitate to pro- 
nounce the last excellent over all others. 

We have but to recall John of Barneveldt, executed at 
the Hague in 1619 for his faith and independence, and 
Grotius imprisoned for life for his fidelity to truth, but 
happily escaping from his prison-house by the skill of 
his loving wife, to see what fanaticism may do even in a 
Republic. Those who may think that the Hague was 
singularly despotic and fanatical, will remember the 
like fate of Algernon Sydney and Lord William Russell 
half a century later, and of Sir Walter Raleigh only the 
year before. How true it is, and often Jiow sad it is, - 
that in matters of State and religion, history is always 
repeating itself. 
6 



42 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

The Diitcli Republic won lier independence in spite of 
the most despotic power of the old world, but only to 
lose it after nearly forty years of war by her own inter- 
nal, and these, chiefly, religious dissensions; and as if 
these forty years of war were not sufficient, her later 
destiny was again foreshadowed in the thirty years' con- 
flict soon to follow the twelve years' truce. Grotius, for 
his own country, for our country, and for all lands, most 
truly said : '' If the trees we plant do not shade us, they 
will yet serve for our descendants." It was in the midst 
of this internal relio-ious war in the United Provinces 
that the Puritans fled from England to Holland, with 
Kobinson and Brewster for their leaders — men who have 
been christened as the Paul and Timothy of religious 
brotherhood, as "the JEneas and.Ascaniusof the Pilgrim 
epic," and who only just before the embarkation on the 
Mayflower had planted the tree of that free religious 
government at Amsterdam and Leyden, which was soon 
transplanted, with entire religious freedom, into demo- 
cratic government at New Plymouth and New York. 

The Avords ^vritten at Leyden, first to Old and then to 
New England, accompanied the Pilgrims, and, recalling 
the date of their utterance, seem almost inspired. 
" Whereas you are to become a body politic, using among 
yourselves civil government, and are not furnished with 
any persons of special eminence above the rest to be 
chosen by you into officers of government, let your wis- 
dom and godliness appear not only in choosing such 
persons as do entirely love and will promote the common 
good, but also in yielding to them all honor and obedience 



speech of Erastus Brooks. 43 

in their lawful administration ; not beholding in them 
the ordinariness of their persons, but God's ordinance for 
your good." 

Our forefathers, almost without exception, held that 
political bonds between Church and State made an incest- 
uous union, and so they departed as far as possible from that 
dangerous, anti-democratic, anti-republican maxim, cujus 
regio, ejus religio, or, whoever governs you, binds you to 
his religion. This was not a question so much of sects 
as of dogmas, and in time dogmas have burned thousands 
at the stake or tortured great multitudes in dungeons, or 
hung them upon the gibbet. Almost just when Hudson 
and the Pilgrims set out for New York bay by order of 
Philip III, a million of people, the most industrious of 
the realm, were banished from Spain because they were 
Moors, and from that day to the present Spain has ceased 
to be a prosperous nation. The cruel exile was the work 
first of the Archbishop of Valencia, backed by the pri- 
mate of the kingdom, the Archbishop of Toledo, but the 
wiser Cardinal Kichelieu, half-priest, half -soldier, and all 
statesman, pronounced the act the most rash and barbar- 
ous of which the world makes mention. 

It may be asked, what has prompted this interest of 
one not a native of this State, and in the first meeting of 
the Legislature in the New Capitol ? I answer, and with 
more of State pride I hope than personal vanity, that it 
was impossible for a son of New England to have been 
forty-four years a citizen of this commonwealth without 
feeling the deepest regard in its past history and future 
welfare. For nearly all these years, and chiefly as a New 



44- Proceedings of the Legislature. 

York journalist, but witli a divided official and unofficial 
residence at Albany, Washington, and tlie great metrop- 
olis, I have watched the growth of the State. 

Nor could I forget the fact — which, considering sub- 
sequent events, as citizens of New York, will almost create 
a smile on your part — that not long after Govempr Stuy- 
vesant had surrendered all New York to the English, 
in that memorable year, 1688, this entire Colony, now 
the Empire State of the Union, was surrendered to 
New England, retaining only the privilege of possessing 
a Lieutenant-Governor.^'' King Charles II and his suc- 
cessors were, however, the real Grovernors of this Prov- 
ince up to the period of the American Revolution. No 
local representative government was permitted until 1683, 
and after three years the General Assembly was extin- 
guished until 1691. From that time until the Revolution 
the Legislature made laws for the Colony, and the members 
increased in numbers from seventeen to thirty-one in the 
space of eighty-eight years, and the pay of members from 
T5 cents to $1.25 a day ! The counties or districts, and 
not the Colony, paid the bills, and the same per diem for 

* James II constituted Sir Edmond Andros Governor of New England and 
New York just before 1688. Andros came to New York under tliis authority 
and against it Leister rebelled. See N. Y. Colonial History for a record of 
this rebellion. See, also, Broadhead's History of N. Y., vol. 2, 1871, p-p. 421 
and 525. Also, New York Historical Society collections of 1868-'74, and tbe 
Andros tracts with a proclamation as Governor of New England, dated Janu- 
ary 10th, 1688. Also Palfrey's History of N. E., where Whitmore saya, 
" returning to Boston he [Andros] found a great promotion awaiting him in a 
new commission creating him Governor of all the English possessions on the 
main land. * * * * His command embraced New England, New 
York and New Jersey, with its capitol at Boston." * * * * In July, 
August and September 1688, Andros made a tour through the Colonies, going 
through the Jerseys and visiting New York city, Albany and Hartford, 



speech of Erastus Brooks. 45 

travel, wHcli was also limited by law. The term of leg- 
islative service from 1691 was from two to ten years, and 
in 1743 the limitation was for seven years, unless sooner 
dissolved by the King or by the Governor upon his 
authority. From 1683 to 1776, it is due to the past to 
say that New York won the first victory both for civil 
and religious liberty, as it did in the Congress of the Col- 
onies for our present American Union. 

Besides, the county of Richmond, from which I come, 
was the scene of almost greater interest through the Rev- 
olutionary period than almost any other part of the State. 
There, was nearly the beginning of the real War of the 
Revolution. There, for six years the Islands, Manhattan 
and Staten (the latter christened " the Island of the 
States " of Holland), was under British rule. Over both, 
for long periods of time, the Dutch and English alter- 
nately predominated. There, were the early homes of 
the Walloons, the Waldenses, and Huguenots, all exiles 
from old-world bigotry and oppression. King James, 
Queen Anne, and William and Mary, all figure in the 
local history of that county. Hessians, and Highlanders, 
there boasted, even after battle was over, that " they 
gave no quarter to rebels." There, almost cotempora- 
neously with the meeting of the first Assembly of New 
York, came and anchored 267 sail of British vessels of 
war, with troops commanded by Lord Howe on the land, 
and the navy by his brother, the Admiral, on the sea. 
There 33,000 British and Hessians * crossed the bay to 

* A part of the 134,000 soldiers and sailors wliicli came from England to 
America between 1775 and 1781. 



46 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

Long Island to attack our feeble and scattered militia. 
There, 101 years ago, on the 14th of last September, by 
an invitation from Lord Howe, sent through his prisoner, 
General Sullivan, and addressed to the Continental Con- 
gress, came Benjamin Franklin, of Pennsylvania, John 
Adams, of Massachusetts, and Edward Rutledge, of 
South Carolina, to receive, but not to accept, offers of full 
pardon to "repentant rebels" who would lay down their 
arms and prove their allegiance. 

In all the eventful incidents of the devolution, I know 
of not one more impressive than that at Staten Island in 
1777, where, surrounded by British grenadiers, in the 
room of a house still standing, then a barrack for British 
soldiers. Lord Howe offered a royal pardon to that tri- 
umvirate of patriots, Franklin, Adams and Rutledge, and 
through them to the then nearly three millions of Amer- 
ican people, half a million of whom were slaves. Lord 
Howe was in manners every way a gentleman, as he was 
a soldier in courage ; but with only pardon for men who 
had taken up arms for "independence now and inde- 
pendence forever," there could be no reconciliation short 
of eternal separation from the mother country. When 
his lordship told the committee, sent by Congress, that 
he had a very great regard for Americans, and that their 
precipitancy was painful to him and perilous to them- 
selves, Franklin answered : " The American people will 
endeavor to take good care of themselves, and thus 
relieve, as much as possible, the pain felt by his lordship 
for any service he might deem it his duty to adopt." 
And when Lord Howe repeated his regrets that he could 



speech of Erastus Brooks. ' 47 

not receive this committee as public characters, John 
Adams replied : " I should be willing to consider myself 
in any character agreeable to your lordship, except that 
of a British subject.' 

Later on in the war — such was the retributive justice 
of the times — Mr. Adams, who was made prominent 
enough to be singled out as one of the unpardoned and 
unpardonable rebels, had to be received by the King of 
England, in person, as the first minister from the United 
States at the court of St. James. 

In later years, on Staten Island, also lived and died 
one who seventy-seven years ago was 'a leading member 
of the State Legislature, as was his father during the 
whole of the Revolutionary period. He was a Judge of 
the Supreme Court, State Chancellor, Governor of the 
State before the age of thirty-three, the first Governor 
who sat in the Old Capitol (elected in 1807, re-elected in 
1810, 1813 and 1816), where sixteen other Governors 
have since filled the executive office,* chosen Vice-Presi- 
dent of the United States in 1817, and re-elected in 1821, 
after taking a soldier's and statesman's part in the War 
of 1812-15. As a financier, Robert Morris was hardly 
more successful in the War of the Revolution than was 
Governor Tompkins in the second war with England. 
From New York city in 1801, fi'om Richmond coimty in 
1821, and from the latter made President of the Conven- 
tion, Governor Tompkins was elected to revise and amend 

* Besides Governor Tompkins, elected for four terms, were DeWitt Clinton, 
elected for four terms, William L. Marcy for three terms, William H. Seward, 
Edwin D. Morgan, Reuben E. Fenton, and John T. HofiFman for two terms 
each. All these with the rest presided in the Old Capitol. 



48 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

tlie State Constitution. Whatever he did, he did well, and 
this, whether as military commander or financier in 
war, or when, as in 1812, in his message to the Legisla- 
ture at the commencement of the session, he asked that 
" the reproach of slavery be expunged from our statute 
book ; " and in proroguing the same body, the same year 

— the only like executive act in the history of the State 

— declared that the banking system of that period had 
been increased and fostered by bribery and corruption 
which threatened irreparable evils to the community. 
His honest courage was met by the hottest of party 
anathemas ; but, strong in his integrity and in a right- 
eous public opinion, he secured the admiration of the 
people in all the States. 

Our State abounds in many like honorable examples, 
which for the honored dead there is not time to mention, 
and still less for the living, whose fames and names will 
survive them. Here of the now dead men of the past sat 
also as Governors, and in more than regal state, the Clin- 
tons, Van Buren, Marcy, Wright, Seward, Lems, Bouck, 
and Yates ; and in the halls of legislation, three candi- 
dates for President of the United States, one of whom 
was elected, and three of whom were chosen Vice-Presi- 
dent. Nineteen of the citizens of New York have also 
filled the best places in the Cabinet at Washington. 
There were also, in the past, in the halls of legislation, 
in Senate or Assembly, a long line of honored names, as 
the Livingstons, the Boots, the Grangers, the Youngs, 
the Spencers, the Tallmadges, the Verplancks, the Dick- 
ensons, the Beardsleys, the Tracys, the Comings, the 



speech cf Erastus Brooks. 



49 



Cadys, tlie Williamses, the Wheatons, the Taylors, the 
Van Vechtens, the Butlers, the Bronsons, the Van Kens- 
selaers, the Hoffmans, the Wenclalls, the Ogdens, the 
Savages, the Oakleys, and a multitude of stars only 
less in magnitude whom no man can number, many of 
whom are examples for the present and for all time. 

The century of our legislative history has witnessed, 
after the fiercest and costliest civil war on record, the 
growth and extirpation of slavery. The institution 
died out in the North by peaceful means, simply because 
it was unprofitable, and not alone because it was immoral. 
Slavery continued longest at the South because the negro 
was most at home in the tropics, and because for half a 
century or more it was thought — happily a mistaken 
thought — that cotton, sugar and tobacco could only be 
successfully cultivated by negro labor. Once, indeed, 
New York had more slaves than Virginia, and the old 
Holland Company agreed to furnish slaves just so long 
as they were profitable. On penalty of exile, no colonist 
could then weave an inch of cotton, woolen or linen cloth, 
and for any departure from this rule, to exile was added 
the eternal displeasure of the weavers of Holland, 
whose monopolies, however, let me say, were no worse 
than those of old England, also long enriched by the 
slave trade. 

Just one hundred years before the close of the Revo- 
lution, Gov^ernor Dongan, directed by the Duke of York, 
later James II, and advised by William Penn, laid the 
foundation of a freer government in New York, where in 



50 ' Proceedings of the Legislature. 

1683 was legally called together tlie first Assembly of the 
people's representatives. 

Passing over these nearly one hundred years, I see 
George Washington proposed by John Adams in the 
Continental Congress — John Hancock being its Presi- 
dent — to be Commander-in-Chief of the American Army. 
As modest as he was brave, and as unselfish as he was 
wise, the office is accepted with the desire and pledge 
that he may serve his country without personal reward. 
Ten days later he is received, in his uniform of blue, in 
New York city by great masses of people mth an enthu- 
siasm never surpassed. The Provincial Congress of New 
York shared in these honors, and bid God-speed to one 
whom, as with the great chief of Israel, Heaven seemed 
to inspire with wisdom, patience, and especial courage and 
endowments for command. All the way to old Cam- 
bridge Avas a scene of ovation and thanksgiving. New 
England, with Washington in command, is soon free from 
British rule. Boston harbor and Boston town are no 
longer tenable for British troops or British ships ; and 
Washington now moves unobstructed toward New York, 
from henceforth until the war closed, the stronghold of 
the enemy. The flag of a new Union now floated for 
the first time unmolested over New England, as did the 
British flag over the Island of Manhattan. 

Boston and Philadelphia were then the largest cities. 
In time Philadelphia was destined to share the fate of 
New York. The purpose of Sir Henry Clinton and of 
Guy Carleton was to cut off all communication between 
New England and New York ; but Washington kept his 



speech of Erastus Brooks. 51 

eyes fixed upon tlie Hudson, and especially upon West 
Point, as the key to the North and the gate-way to the 
South. Soon and sadly Long Island, New York, Fort 
Lee and Fort Washington were all surrendered. For 
forty-eight hours Washington was in the saddle superin- 
tending the retreat of his few but brave troops from 
Long Island, and moving them all in safety even when 
within gun-shot of the enemy; but later losing his 
artillery and baggage in the uplands of the city of New 
York. 

Thoughtful men have often paused to contemplate the 
possible fate of North America had Washington fallen 
during the retreat of his army from Long Island. The 
young nation wept at his disaster, but rejoiced that an 
overruling Providence preserved his life. Trenton and 
the Delaware alone turned the tide of battle, and Wash- 
ington at Morristown with two thousand men kept 
twenty-five thousand at bay, and soon lifted the gloom 
which for a time seemed denser than Cimmerian dark- 
ness. Later on, Burgoyne at the North, Howe at the 
South, an advance from New York by the Hudson, and 
an alliance with savage men, was the year's plan of cam- 
paign. All along our frontier the Ottawas, Wyandottes, 
Senecas, Delawares and Pottawatamies were in league 
with the hardly less savage Hessians and Britons, led 
by Lord George Germain and Sir Guy Carleton. For 
six months more the tide rolled like the billows of the 
sea against the Americans. La Corne St. Luk, the 
remorseless partisan, enraged by age and inspired by 
hate, pledged himself to Carleton that mthin sixty days 



53 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

he would bring liis Indian followers to the very spot 
where the Leo;islature is now assembled. 

Indians, Tories, Hessians and Canadians, moved for a 
time toward the Hudson like so many torrents from the 
mountains, but long before they reached Albany they 
were met by one to whose ears the roar of cannon was as 
natural as the music of the spheres. General Stark and 
his New Hampshire and Green Mountain boys stood like 
a wall of fire between the assault and advance of the 
enemy, and soon drove back the latter both defeated and 
dismayed. Ere long, King, Ministry and Parliament, tire 
of Indian allies and Indian massacres along the Mohawk 
and Hudson, at Forts Stanwix and Edward, and else- 
where. Burgoyne's surrender soon followed, with the 
loss of 10,000 men, thus relieving the now capital of the 
State instead of placing it in the promised sixty days in 
the hands of the enemy. 

As the clouds rolled over and along the Hudson, 
the spirits of a long-despondent people also rose in the 
Colonies; but all through 1777, '78, '79, there was alter- 
nate sunshine and storm, disaster an d victory, until at last, 
with France for our ally, the- mother country became 
weary of hostility to her own offspring, in a war that 
often seemed as unnatural as the mother feeding upon its 
young. The story of the Wallabout and of the prison 
ships, of Dartmouth prison filled with American sailors, 
worse than the stories of the Bastile crowded with pris- 
oners, was a part of the cruel and bloody history of one 
hundred years ago. The massacre at Wyoming was only 
more sudden and ferocious ; but thanks again to an over- 



speech of Erastus Brooks. 53 

ruling Providence, tlie end came, but only after Mon- 
mouth, Stony Point, Cowpens, Gilford Court-House, 
Yorktown and many victories upon the seas. It came in 
spite of Arnold's treason, the mutiny of unpaid troops, 
and a condition of finance so deplorable that it took 
thirty-three dollars of Continental money to secure one in 
specie. It was a maxim, even then, that bad money in 
the end made bad times, and always failed to pay satis- 
factorily one's debts, and it has never been otherwise 
from the days of Chinese paper money to the paper notes 
of John Law, the Mississippi bubble, the French assignats, 
and the currency of the rebellion.* 

It was just eight years from the battle of Lexington to 
the proclamation of peace, and nearly nine to the evacua- 
tion of New York city, ninety -five years ago, where, upon 
a bright and frosty November afternoon, the last of the 
Britons took their leave of America, then and forever. 
They left the British flag nailed and flying at mast-head 
upon the Battery, but before they were out of sight upon 
the bay it was torn to tatters, and in place of it a noble 
sailor, whose descendant still lives to raise the stars and 
stripes every 25th of November, raised the Union flag, 
which soon floated in the breeze, and with God's blessing 
it will float there, " not one star polluted, not one stripe 
erased," to the end of time. Governor George Clinton 
for the colony of New York, seven times elected its Gov- 
ernor in Colony and State, with General Knox, in com- 

* The old-time money here, wheu not beavers, which were used as a 
medium of exchange, was wampum, where six white or three cylindrical 
pieces made of shells, were equivalent to one farthing, and so passed between 
the planters and natives. 



54 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

mand of all the Colonial forces, at once occupied the town. 
Nine days later the ever-beloved commander-in-chief took 
leave of the army, in the presence of his officers, at Fra- 
zer's tavern, Whitehall, near the present New York ferry, 
and a few days later tendered his resignation in person 
to the Continental Congress, at Annapolis, and returned 
to his home at Mt. Vernon, which he had been permitted 
to visit but once in seven years. 

Then came the old Confederacy, which, as you know, 
was a failure — like the new one of 1860-61, though for 
a different cause — and then the Constitution, which was, 
and is, the grandest work in the history of nations. Under 
its benign influence the first Congress assembled in our 
great metropolis, and there, April 30, 1789, the great 
charter was received and inaugurated, John Adams, the 
first Vice-President, presenting to take the oath of office 
George Washington, the first President, to Chancellor 
Livingston of the State of New York.* That oath was a 
pledge to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution 
of the United States. As it was obeyed by AVashington 
and his successors, so let it be observed for all time, and 
not less in the spirit than in the letter. What a Cabinet 
was the first one, the President, the central figure of all, 
and around him only four members ; but of these secre- 
taries were Jefferson, the senior of the four, at the age of 
forty-seven; Knox at the age of forty; Randolph at 
thirty-seven, and Hamilton not quite thirty-three ; the 

* New York not having adopted the Federal Constitution in time, as 
with Rhode Island and South Carolina, did not vote for the first President. 
Of the 73 votes cast Washington had 69; John Jay, 9 ; George Clinton, 3 ; 
John Adams, 34, which made him the first Vice-President. 



speech of Erastus Brooks. 55 

last the ornament and pride of the State, the great or- 
ganizer of the Federal Treasury, whose method of col- 
lecting, keeping and disbursing the public money has 
not been improved from that day to the present ; the 
man who so framed the law that he could not draw his 
own small salary without the signatures of the Comp- 
troller and Auditor, and of the Treasurer and Register — 
too much red tape, you may say, but better red tape by 
the mile than dishonest officials by the score, or even 
one. 

The past is secure, and the future must be Judged by 
the ]3ast. Men change for the better rather by the grace 
of God, than by individual instincts or human institu- 
tions. But free government is born of God, and nations 
rise, advance and fall as they establish and maintain, or 
neglect the right way ; and men who love their homes 
and country watch its life and progress, with an interest 
akin to their love of family. The truest patriotism rests 
only upon the solid foundation of private virtue and 
public purity. 

With something of this feeling, I hope we have all 
watched the growth of New York. The population, only 
340,000 in 1790, and only about 750,000 when the Old 
Capitol was completed, and under the census of 1835, at 
the close of the year, when I first knew our great city, 
numbered 2,130,000 white, and 43,000 colored persons. 
Forty years later, the white population was 4,642,837, 
and the colored only 56,127. Only in two decades, 
since 1790, have the latter grown in numbers, and this 
increase altogether has been less than one per cent, while 



56 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

the wHte population, in the same period, increased 3.22 
per cent. 

The cities and city suburbs of the State, always the 
focus of growth, have advanced as 34-93 to 1-93 for the 
rural towns. Unfortunately for States and people, gravi- 
tation is ever chiefly toward the town. Of our whole 
population, 3,503,300 were native born ; 1,195,658 foreign 
born, and only 301,240 were born in the other States. 

Our State growth in agriculture and mechanical occu- 
pations has fairly kept pace with our increased popu- 
lation. If, as in the tillage of the soil, families and 
dwellings, work-shops and churches, with conjugal life, 
are the best signs of prosperity, New York deserves to 
be, as she is, the Empire State of the Union. Unfortu- 
nately, in some things our growth shows both our shame 
and our sorrow. Just as ill weeds grow apace, so pub- 
lic debts often increase, bringing with its burdens more 
self-denial than is agreeable, and more taxes than are 
bearable. In our city, town, village and corporate debts, 
I see the source of nearly all our woes. Debt is the 
hardest of masters, and her servants usually the worst 
of slaves. The Federal and State debts are happily on 
the declme, but in 1875 the local debts, if the State 
Comptroller is correct, make the startling sum of $250,- 
000,000, and the decrease is not large. Ten thousand 
millions is the estimated debt of the nation, and the esti- 
mated debt of the world three times as many billions. 
It is not an encouraging fact that in the city of New 
York alone, in 1878, the fifth year of the panic, there 
were 917 failures, and only $18,695,531 of assets for 



speech of Erastus Brooks. 57 

$63,958,403 of liabilities. Witli all our present ease- 
ment and brighter prospects, we must also take in the 
fact that in 1877, the town, county and State tax summed 
up over fifty millions of dollars, with as much more 
imposed, directly and indirectly, upon the people by the 
Federal government. The people were drawn into this 
crime of debt, for it was nothing less, not so much by 
war alone, as by a false financial policy, and by a fiction 
called prosperity; but it was the prosperity of a man 
who thinks that delirium is happiness, and that profits 
from gambling are evidences of wealth. After the din- 
ner, the wine and the debauch, comes repentance, but it 
comes too late. In this and in other States, too many 
people, clothed in silks, broadcloths and costly apparel, 
have been riding as it were upon the horns of the moon, 
and, as by its pale light, they beheld their lengthened 
shadows, they fancied indeed that the moon was really 
made of green cheese, and the cheese itself was both as 
yellow as gold, and quite as large as the orb of day. Pay- 
days have been coming, and coming for more than five 
years past, and they have not been like angels' visits few 
and far between. When the debt is all paid, either by 
wholesale millions, as through the late Federal bankrupt 
law, or by means provided by State law, or, what is better, 
by the honest dollar for every honest debt, we shall once 
more stand upon solid ground. 

But, as a contrast to this debt-picture, we have a right 
to contemplate our growth in political and scientific 
knowledge. When the first New York Assembly met, 

and for nearly half a century later, there were no tele- 

8 



58 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

graphs, no deep-sea cables putting a girdle around the 
earth in a wink of time, so that Valentia and Heart's 
Content are now twice spanned 8,700 miles over two 
cables in a second with the simple contents of a lady's 
thimble, and these contents composed only of acids, zinc 
and copper. A battery of 20 cells has proved more 
potent than aforetime one of 500. Our good home-spun 
forefathers and foremothers had no railroads, no illumin- 
ating gas, no electric lights^ no friction matches, no iron 
stoves, no heating by steam, or steam motive power, no 
side-wheel or screw ocean steamers, no sewing-machines, 
no American pottery, no heliographs nor photographs, 
nor phonographs nor telephones ; no steam-plows, no bal- 
loons to survey armies as from the clouds, nor diving 
bells to collect treasures from the deep, no anaesthetics 
or chloroforms to produce deliverance from pain while 
limbs are being amputated, and the decayed tooth of old 
time removed for the bran-new porcelains of the dentist 
and chemist of to-day. The Indian trail j)ath, the sad- 
dle-horse, and here and there the lumbering coach, the 
canoe, and by sail or on foot, were the only ways and 
means of conveyance. And now, in 60 days one can cir- 
cumnavigate the earth. The brick and Dutch ovens Avere 
the bread and meat bakers, and pine-knots and tallow 
dips the chief sources of light, while about the only 
means of warmth were the stone hearth and the deep 
fire-place. Carpets and rugs and mats were almost 
unknown. Sanded floors and the tinder-box, with its 
flint and iron, were the substitutes for parlor and kitchen 
matches. The old oaken bucket and the deep-sunken 



speech of Erastus Brooks. 59 

wells took precedence of our Croton pipes and hydraulic 
rams. 

All is changed now. Our State population increased 
23 per cent between 1865 and 1875 ; * and, judging from 
the past, at the close of 1899, a period not far distant, 
the Empire State will have 6,136,000 inhabitants. 

A fact also of public interest is the rather close rela- 
tion of the sexes to the number of people, or, 2,378,780 
females to 2,320,178 males ; an excess of females of 58,- 
602. Our foreign population is a trifle in excess of 25 
per cent of the grand total of 4,698,958, which does not 
include children born of foreign parents, but even these 
give to New York city only 57.337 of native popula- 
tion ; to Kings county 65.24 ; and to Erie county 66.578. 
New York city has 19.198 per cent of Irish, and 15.465 
per cent of Germans. All our sister States together 
have contributed only 6.411 to our whole people. The 
Empire State, to-day, has a population larger than any 
one of the South American States, except Brazil, and 
more j)eople than Holland or Denmark, Greece or Portu- 
gal, Saxony or Switzerland, and close on to the numbers 
in Bavaria, Belgium, or the whole of British North 
America, from Newfoundland to the Rocky Mountains. 
Of our 4,698,958 people, 1,141,462 were entitled to the 
ballot, in 1876, after subtracting 126,060 aliens not enti- 
tled to vote, but including 394,182 naturalized citizens 
and 747,280 native-born citizens. Only in New York, 
Kings, and Erie is there an excess of naturalized voters ; 
50,206 in New York, 5,610 in Kings, and 399 in Erie. 

*In sixty years, from 1800-60, tbe increase in the United States was 593 per 
cent ; in England and Wales 131 per cent, and in France only 37 per cent. 



60 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

The cliarge of fraudulent voting in our two great cities, 
let us hope, is no longer true, for if the census be correct, 
New York city in 1875 had 232,152 legal voters, and 
polled 171,374 votes for President, or only 73.81 per 
cent, and Kings county but 84.43. Where 49 counties 
cast 90 per cent of their legal votes, 26 of the more rural 
counties cast 95 per cent. Perhaps, however, it is a cred- 
itable fact to state, as a whole, that in 1876, 1,015,527 
votes were polled of the 1,141,462 State voters, or 88 
per cent of the whole voting population. 

The military capacity of the State is equally striking, 
with 956,874 males between the ages of eighteen and 
forty-five; and so with the schools, with (in 1877)1,586,- 
234 persons between the ages of five and twenty -one, 
which is the school period. 

It is also creditable to the State that its families num- 
ber 995,502, and its dwellings 728,688, or 6.45 per cent 
to each dwelling, but only 4.72 to each family — a fact 
not so creditable to the people, and wholly in contrast to 
the examples of our good grandparents. The family is 
the only safe and sacred abiding place of the State, and 
without it the sun w^ould almost cease to shine in the 
heavens, and the earth prove but a living sepulchre, full 
of dead men's bones and all un cleanness. The true fam- 
ily means husband, wife, mother, father, children, grand- 
parents and grandchildren — all, indeed, who are under 
the same roof. These are the household gods of the com- 
monwealth, the main-stay of its power, and the very 
essence of its present strength and future life. The fam- 
ily of States is the union of States, and this means noble 



speech of Erastus Brooks. 61 

ancestry and lineage, the descent from a common stock 
and race, kindred people in life and thonglit, while the 
human family means, and by no stretch of imagination, 
the welfare of our country and of mankind all over the 
world. 

It is agreeable to say that the value of our State 
dwellings alone is far in excess of our national debt, or 
$2,465,033,634, and nearly one-half of this value is taxed 
to the city of New York. Of $50,224,848 of taxes for 
all purposes levied by the State in 1877, New York and 
Kings counties paid $35,653,834 and still more in 1878. 

Next to the family, the glory of the commonwealth is 
its common schools, open to-day to 1,615,256 of our pres- 
ent children, not counting 7,000 students in our colleges 
and higher seminaries of learning, and most of all these 
soon to be the fathers and mothers of the State. 
Ninety-five years ago there was not one academy nor 
common school and but one poor university in the 
State. If knowledge is power, our schools, public and 
private, are the sources of our future greatness. 

Kindred to the schools, and as the sources of Chris- 
tian education, are 6,320 church edifices, with an en- 
rolled membership of 1,146,537, and sittings for 
2,537,470 people.* The New York churches are val- 
ued at $117,597,150, with salaries in gross of $5,308,- 
231, but making an average of less than $840 each. 
In their order, Methodist, Episcopal, Baptist and 
Presbyterian lead the way in church buildings. In 

*In the United States the number in 1870 was 21,665,062 sittings, 63,083 
edifices, and 72,459 congregations, and the property was valued at $354,- 
483,581. 



62 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

membersliip, also in their order, the Roman Catholics, 
Methodists and Presbyterians take the lead. I can find 
only forty-four sects or denominations in the State, but 
it is to be hoped, and indeed it is true, that many of 
these divisions, like kindred drops of water from one 
great fountain, not only mingle into one, but have their 
source in one great Father, their life in one great broth- 
erhood, and their final faith and destiny in the one 
great Creator and Saviour of the world. 

If figures were not tiresome, and sometimes exhaust- 
ing, one might remember with instruction, though not 
with satisfaction, for the numbei's are far too few, the fact 
that less than one-tenth of our entire people are landed 
proprietors.* Then comes the unwelcome fact also that 
the largest proprietors are gradually but certainly ab- 
sorbino; the land of the smallest. In 1875 there were 
241,839 farms in the State, the whole having 25,659,266 
acres, the value of which was $1,221,472,277, besides 
stock valued at $146,497,154. It is to be regretted that 
there were 2,018 less farms of ten and twenty acres 
each, 14,908 less of twenty and fifty, and 2,838 of fifty 
and one hundred acres each in 1875 than in 1870, while 
the net increase of farms from 1870 to 1875 were 25,586, 
and this difference mil be more marked in the future 
than in the past. Capital, machinery and competition, 
with a constant tendency to centralization, are always 
powers of absorption, but against them you may place 
skill, industry, order, temperance and thrift ; in one 

* It is worse in England, -where twenty thousand persona own the land 
occupied by 30,000,000 of people. 



speech of Erastiis Brooks. 63 

word, capacity, whicli, in man or woman, as a rule, are 
elements of sure success. Land and building incum- 
brances were the plague spots of so-called prosperous 
times, and year by year, for over five years now, tlie 
money-lenders and capitalists have demanded the prom- 
ised pound of flesh in the form of surrendered acres, 
workshops, stores and dwellings. 

The products of our farms, providing woi'k for 
351,628 people, present almost exciting results ; the 
sales of 1876 returned $121,187,467, and the variety 
embraced every thing belonging to the soil, the dairy, 
and to the raising of stock. 

The population representing the productive industry 
of the State, in 1870, was 1,537,726, of whom 1,275,372 
are males, and 262,354 females. Of these 925,293 were 
natives, and 612,433 foreign born; and the females were 
only one-sixth of the whole force. One-half of the 
female contingent are domestic servants. Of the rest 
81,758 were engaged in trade, and 15,140 were teachers. 
Let me say here, and upon the evidence of long observa- 
tion, that skilled work in man or woman, and especially 
is this true of woman, is sure to find both place and 
reward. Alexander Hamilton once prayed for diversity 
in the industries of the new world ; and his prayer is 
heard. 

In the United States roll-call of 1875 are 6,000,000 of 
persons engaged in agriculture, 2,700,000 in mining and 
manufacturing, 1,200,000 in trade and transportation, 
2,600,000 in professional life, of whom 40,000 were law- 
yers, 62,000 physicians, and 43,000 clergymen. 



64 Proceedings of the Legislature. 

The conclusion of all these figures and of the brief 
record of history I have recited is, in the words of Frank- 
lin before the Continental Congress : " That God gov- 
erns in the affairs of men, and if a sparrow cannot fall to 
the ground without His notice, neither can a kingdom 
rise without His aid." We write Excelsior upon our 
escutcheon, placing the scales of Justice in the right hand 
of one figure, as symbolical of purity and truth, while 
the cap of liberty is held in the left of the fair Goddess 
of Freedom, the eagle ever watching with eager eyes and 
free wings these emblems of our State. Ships upon the 
sea, steam upon land, river and ocean, and industry and 
thrift all around, fill up the picture and become the evi- 
dence, under Providence, that God has always blessed 
our homes and our State. 

Fellow-members, brothers in the pledge of dutiful obe- 
dience to the State, representatives of nearly 5,000,000 of 
people, upon you rests the sacred obligation of present 
duty. See to it that at your hands nothing that is noble 
and ennobling is lost of the past ; and that, through 
your example, the Legislature of the year of our Lord 
1879 shall inspire confidence in all the future. And to 
the end of time may God save and bless the common- 
wealth of New York. 

At the close of the address of Mr. Brooks, the Chaplain of 
the Senate, Rev. Dr. H alley, pronounced the benediction. 

Mr. Sloan moved that the thanks of the joint assembly be 
tendered to the Lieutenant-Goveknok, the Speaker of the 
Assembly, and Hon. Ekastus Brooks, for the interesting and 



speech of Erastus Brooks. 65 

able addresses delivered by them, and that the Clerks of the 
Senate and Assembly be instructed to canse them to be inserted 
, in the journals of the two Houses, respectively. 

The President put the question whether the joint assembly 
would agree to said motion, and it was decided in the affirmative. 

The President then announced the proceedings closed, and 
declared the joint assembly dissolved. 

The Senate then returned to the Senate chamber. 
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